Rise
A Socially Distanced Entertainment Expirience
Investor Showcase
2020 was a hard year for live entertainment. The pandemic shut down all “non-essential” businesses, which included live entertainment. Las Vegas was hit hard by the shutdown, and live entertainment stayed shut down as the pandemic raged through the year. In November, Velvet Crane Productions and the creative team behind Dragone Entertainment began working on a new show. Instead of attempting to resurrect the old iconic Las Vegas Shows, this new team created RISE: a Socially Distanced Entertainment Experience. To secure funding to build the show from the ground up, Las Vegas entertainment professionals were all called in to volunteer their talents to create a short investor showcase as part of their pitch, and oh boy, did they show up. Professionals from all the shows on the Las Vegas Strip were involved in creating the showcase and poured their time and talent into it. Wayne Wison, one of the co-directors, said, “There are those who pray for answers and those who search for solutions. The fact that we are here shows our commitment to creating solutions.”
My Involvement
I joined the volunteer team in late October as a scenic carpenter. The goal was to create a stage set up out of shipping containers. With the use of a front loader, a team of us created the three island setup seen above. The center two containers held a truss structure that supported a trampoline and lighting equipment and handholds for trampoline acrobatics. The three visible sides of the container island were also home to trampolines to give a lot of play space for the acrobatics showcase. All the truss structure supports and the trampolines' bases were faced with plywood and decorated with dimensional pieces before being painted to give the appearance of graffitied wooden shipping crates. The scenic team and I spend many days cutting lumber on-site, and I spent a good deal of time planning cut lists to help with dimensional pieces.
After much of the scenic carpentry was complete, I was introduced to Thom Rubino, a well-established props manufacturer in Las Vegas who had an interesting piano to show me. Thom had been commissioned to create an “Exploding Piano” for the show as part of the opening gag, which involved a concert pianist playing so well that the instrument just couldn't keep up.
Left to right: Thom Rubino, Phil Fortenberry, Cameron Tenn
Thom’s piano was made of two main body sections, a lid, and a set of launchers. The front of the piano was fitted with a functioning keyboard to allow a well-known concert pianist, Phil Fortenberry, to play the piano before it collapsed. The collapse was triggered by remote control from offstage. The remote triggered a solenoid release that would allow an elastic band to release tension, pulling the piano lid along with it. The piano lid was connected to sliding latches around the piano with Kevlar threads. “The latches were inspired by rat traps,” Thom told me. They were made of two hinges, one on top of the other, sitting perpendicular to each other, and a sliding lock would hold it in place. This mechanism allowed for a lot of force to be held in place without transferring most of it into the sliding lock, which could cause it not to pull out. Along the piano's backside were two simple launchers whose purpose was to throw shrapnel in the air as the piano collapsed. The whole system was very tricky to get working and provided interesting engineering challenges. How do you build something sturdy enough to withstand Phil’s jaw-dropping piano playing for 10 minutes as well as standing around for an hour, and is fragile enough to fall apart on command completely? I assisted Thom mostly in fine tuning the instrument and problem solving as issues arose, including making some design changes to the way the strings were tied to the sliding latches and how everything was tensioned. In the end, we did it. And it became one of the most unique parts of an already unique show.
As the confetti settles and the lights came down, I am glad to have been a part of the show. The state of entertainment in 2020 is tenuous at best, and to be afforded the opportunity to try and bring it back to life is truly humbling. I made so many amazing connections from this opportunity that I would not have been afforded otherwise and experiences that I have been missing for months and months. I especially was very glad to meet Thom and look forward to learning more from them. The lockdown and then this show helps me reinforce what it is I truly love to do. Create one-of-a-kind experiences.